I cut this out from an un-published blog post
that was becoming too long and too old since I had problems making busy people
check if I had understood their information correctly and since there were too
many worrying developments in Loliondo that have since grown into a full
declaration of war from the government (I’ve written about it here and here). I’ll
shortly also post the information I had got about Thomson Safaris and about the
“corridor”/OBC.
This blog
is about Loliondo and I do need to study Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA)
more closely, but I’d like to share some worrying information that has reached
me thanks to Solomon ole Yiapa, Kinama Marite and other people from the area.
Ngorongoro Conservation Area
The last
months (or years really) have seen a food crisis in Ngorongoro Conservation
Area and I’ve got the information from Kinama Marite that the death rate that
for the past 36 years has been around 3 children a month has increased to 12 to
15, and 17 to 20 during the dry season from July to November, and this is due
to malnutrition. Livestock numbers have not recovered from the serious drought
in 2009, there have been more droughts and the situation is worsened by
forbidden access to key grazing areas and areas suitable for avoiding disease
in this much vaunted multiple land use area to where the Maasai were moved from
the Serengeti in 1959 and where their interests were supposed to take
precedence.
Grazing in
the northern highland forest is strictly prohibited by NCAA and more areas are
reportedly being grabbed, like for hotel construction in Esirwa by Zara Tours
and there’s encroachment into Kakesio by Mwiba Holdings, investor at Makao WMA
in Meatu District.
Though the
most direct cause of hunger protested by people in NCA is that when there is
rain and people in other places plant their gardens this is not happening in
NCA as cultivation, including for subsistence is banned since an earlier ban
was re-imposed in 2009 under pressure from UNESCO, IUCN and others. So people
are dying of hunger in an area with – reported – tourism revenue of US$ 50 million
in the latest fiscal year from gate fees alone.
The people,
through their registered villages, have no control over their land since
everything is under the rule of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority
(NCAA). In November 2012 the reports grew louder that food aid was needed and
Ngorongoro councillors tried talking to the Arusha Regional Commissioner who
denied that there was a food crisis. The Pastoral Council – a local body
supposed to represent the interests of people in NCA – receives a tiny fraction
of the gate fees and paid in August for 3,600 tons of maize from the Strategic
Grain Reserve that the government failed to timely distribute. Recent drought
has crashed livestock prices and rocketed the price of maize. One bag of maize now
costs Tshs 90,000 that nearly 80% of people can’t afford. Young people are
moving to town to look for paid work, usually as watchmen, to rescue their
families, but the pay is very low and can’t satisfy their needs. Once they move
to town the families are often left without
anyone to take care of livestock. It’s widely believed that the aim of the NCA
policies of draconian restrictions on human activities and social services is
to let nature take its course forcing people to move out of the area.
The
Parliamentary Standing Committee on Lands, Natural Resources and Environment
witnessed the food crisis on their tour of the northern zone in November and
the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism visited the area and declared
that the government was very willing to send food aid – if an official letter
was sent by the NCAA, but the District Commissioner and NCAA refused to send
such a letter. On 21st December some pastoralist NGOs issued a press
release about the food crisis and then the DC released an official report
saying that emergency relief indeed was needed. Later, in January the Standing
Committee dismissed the report as not showing the seriousness of the
problem.
The
government has distributed over 500 tonnes of maize while NCAA has distributed
300 tonnes that reportedly was not in the best condition for human consumption.
Oxfam have donated 300 bags of fortified flour. This is not a solution for
people that do not want to be fed like sick calves. And yes, the minister
showed up again without saying anything of substance, according to my sources.
It’s
currently rainy season and people in NCA have milk and wild roots and
vegetables, but nobody knows what will happen after this season.
Since
January several people have been arrested in NCA for planting potatoes.
Here’s a
video about the protest against the food crisis. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJYP2-x_Uik
Engaresero
After
having visited NCA, where they could observe the food crisis, the Standing
Committee on Lands, Natural Resources and Environment publicly recommended that
Oldoinyo Lengai, an active volcano and the sacred mountain of the Maasai, in
the village of Engaresero should also be placed under
the NCAA. There are some members of the committee that seem to show some
concern for suffering people, but the outcome of much of what they have a look
at is bizarre in a frightening way. This idea has been proposed at least twice
before and for obvious reasons it has been strongly rejected by people living
in Engaresero. “Investors” have shown interest in the area, but the reasons
expressed by the committee is that Oldoinyo Lengai needs a protected status.
Some years ago even the president spoke out about having the mountain and the
adjacent Lake Natron,
the only important nesting site in East Africa
for lesser flamingos, placed under NCAA. The main threat against Lake Natron
is the Government’s own plans for a soda ash plant.
In 2011
Engaresero received the same kind of letter as received and protested by
Ololosokwan, - a letter demanding that they should hand in the village land
certificate. I do need to know more about Engaresero.
Kakesio
By chance I
got information from Solomon ole Yaipa from Kakesio that on 2nd
December 2012 in the far south of Ngorongoro District, in Olengopuken near Ngairish
in Kakesio ward of Ngorongoro Conservation Area bordering Meatu District in Simiyu
Region (that’s been cut off from Shinyanga Region) 18 Maasai bomas were burnt
by a company called Mwiba Holdings. At the moment no people where living there
but they would have returned on 27th December when they usually move
their livestock to the area. The company was arguing that the area was theirs –
Mwiba is the investor at Makao WMA in Meatu - but maps show that the border to
Makao village is 14 kilometres away and old beacons have also recently been
found by warriors. The burning of bomas was reported to the Ngorongoro
Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) and after weeks of inaction a technical
committee that would meet with Mwiba in Makao was set up.
I wonder
how many similar incidents go unreported. The only chance for anything like
this to be known is that some educated person from the area isn’t too
comfortable and busy to move on in life to voice out.
Solomon
reported that on 15th January Mwiba did eventually agree that the
area was not theirs and promised to compensate for the destruction that they
had caused. The affected people are still waiting for this compensation, and
there have been reports about Mwiba harassing herders from Kakesio. Local
people have reported that Mwiba are expanding their area toward NCA and are
involved in illegal road construction across grazing areas to take their
clients to enjoy the Lake
Eyasi basin. Mwiba have
destroyed beacons that were erected in 1992 to mark the border between the two
districts and have created their own border by painting trees, and clearing the
bush. There’s a border conflict between Makao and Kakesio villages and this is
what Mwiba are basing their claim on. There is also evidence that Mwiba and
associates are hunting inside NCA and very much with knowledge by some NCAA officers.
Mwiba have
got involved with leaders in the new Simiyu Region to continue encroaching into
Kakesio. On 12th April NCAA representatives held a meeting with the
community and promised to find a solution.
I have
later got conflicting reports about the number of bomas that were burnt, if
some of them were Barbaig, and it seems like a large number of Barbaig bomas
could also have been burnt inside Makao WMA.
I do need more
details about this conflict.
Mwiba
Holdings (part of the Tanzanian Mawalla Group) is the investor at Makao
Wildlife Management Area where Mwiba Wildlife Reserve and tented camp are
managed by Ker & Downey Tanzania (“non-consumptive” tourism, re-named
Legendary Adventures) that’s in the same group of companies as Tanzania Game
Trackers Safaris (hunting) and Friedkin Conservation Fund (“philanthropy”) –
all owned by American billionaire Thomas H. Friedkin. A
WMA is supposed to be a manner of making “communities” benefit from wildlife,
but in reality it’s a recipe for advancing the position of investors and
central government. Mwiba were in November 2011 involved in brutal evictions
from Makao WMA under the orders of the Regional Commissioner of Shinyanga. The
letter from the Meatu District Executive Officer’s office detailing the
assistance needed was sent to Friedkin Conservation Trust/TGTS. Here’s the
evictions report. http://pingosforum.or.tz/images/2012_reports/meatu%20consolidfated%20report%202012.pdf
Mwiba are unsurprisingly also very involved in “community empowerment” – just
like other criminals like Thomson Safaris and OBC - and the WMA is being
facilitated by Frankfurt Zoological Society that in 2010 recruited Thomson’s
former “Enashiva” manager Daniel Yamat.
Susanna Nordlund
sannasus@hotmail.com
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